


Christmas Wish

by dollylux



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Christmas Party, Crushes, First Kiss, M/M, Mistletoe, Shy Nando
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1798816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dollylux/pseuds/dollylux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Awkward teenage years. Christmas parties. Alcohol. Crushes. Pretty flushed cheeks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Wish

"Hey, man. You want some punch? Just put out a new bowl," Pepe, a tall, friendly guy with a ready smile, offered, lifting up his own glass as if proving the punch's very existence. Fernando smiles and he's mentally berating himself for how his cheeks flush so easily. He shakes his head and fidgets with the growing fringe of his hair instead of actually looking Pepe in the eyes.

"No. No, I don't like punch." Fernando winces, his eyes fluttering closed at his own stupidity. Punch. Punch is harmless. Who the fuck doesn't like _punch_?

(Fernando has never been very good at making friends. His father's occupation with the army assured that. His hesitation at first was simply a young boy's natural fear of separation and therefore abandonment, but, over time, it had grown into a debilitating shyness at just the wrong age.

That age would be sixteen.)

Pepe shrugs off Fernando's awkward sentence as if people said such flat, strange things everyday (well, Fernando did) and his smile returns immediately.

"So, are you liking the party? Danced with anybody yet?" Pepe leans against the wall next to Fernando, trying to look like a twin wallflower but his height and his bright red shirt negated the attempt. Fernando smiles in spite of himself and he chances a glance up at the loud, chittering, dancing crowd of teenagers bundled up in the livingroom of some guy named José María. He shakes his head again (he hardly ever nodded) and fusses with his hair for the thousandth time.

"I'm not much of a dancer. Plus I don't really know anybody, so..." Fernando trails off pathetically, not really wanting to end the conversation with Pepe but he's pretty terrible at keeping up any conversations in the first place. He licks his lips and suddenly wishes he did have a glass of punch so that he'd at least have something to fidget with besides his hair. "I'm... I'm okay. I'm having fun, actually. It's a change from reading in my room, at least."

Pepe gives him a sympathetic smile and a pat on the back that nearly made Fernando stumble away from the wall. He straightens himself as naturally as possible and he takes the plastic cup of red sweetness that Pepe presses into his hand without really realizing it. He looks up at Pepe with his doe-eyes and then down at the drink, sniffing at it almost delicately before taking a sip. His eyes widen even more when the taste of alcohol spills over his tongue and he has to concentrate to keep from spitting it out instead of swallowing it. He licks his lips and his cheeks are a matching shade of darkening pink.

"What was _that_?"

Pepe cheshire cat grins at him and pats his pocket, the sound of liquid sloshing around in a glass bottle unmistakable.

"Social lubricant. Drink up!" He taps the bottom of the cup insistently until Fernando does as he's told and he doesn't let him stop drinking until it's nearly empty. Fernando makes a disgusted face as he forces the punch down his throat, a hard shudder flying up his spine. He hands Pepe the cup back and he already feels a little dizzy.

"That was disgusting."

Pepe waggles his eyebrows at him and drinks the remains of the punch, grinning even more as he pushes up away from the wall.

"You can thank me later. Maybe this'll make you a little less dorky if he finally comes up to you tonight."

"He who?" Fernando knows he sounds too interested but he doesn't know how to filter himself when he's surprised, and even less so when he's tipsy (which he is, though he doesn't quite realize it).

"Oh, no one," Pepe sing songs, letting out a way too rehearsed sigh as he shoves his hands in his pockets, his eyes on the stairs where a girl and a boy are walking up to the second floor, smiling and groping each other as best as they can without falling. "Just someone who's had his eye on you. He's way too intimidated by you normally, but most people get a little dumber when they drink. So that's what I'm hoping will happen to you. Get you juuust dumb enough so that he'll feel brave enough to talk to you."

"He _who_?" Fernando repeats, sounding exasperated but he's smiling a little now, feeling less nervous suddenly than he has in... in... well. Ever.

Pepe just stares at him for a long moment, looking like he's trying to decide something.

"What is the longest word in the world?"

Fernando nearly giggles at that and the apples of his cheeks are rosy pink now.

"...Um..."

Pepe beams and nods just once.

"Perfect. I'll be right back with more punch."

Before Fernando can encourage that, yes, please, maybe even two more cups of punch, Pepe is gone. Fernando sighs out loud, smiling to himself as he stares back out at the party, not really thinking about himself at the moment which is a welcome change. He suddenly remembers what Pepe had been teasing him about and he frowns. Who the fuck--

He nearly jumps out of his skin when he feels a strong hand clasp around his upper arm, the grip urgent but gently at the same time. He looks over to find its owner, his eyes bright with confusion and curiosity and Everclear grain alcohol. He finds himself face to face with someone just about his height but a different build all together, a boy who couldn't look more different from him if they both tried. His heavy eyes trail over the boy's wing-shaped dark eyes and curved nose and exaggeratedly full mouth and he thinks right at this moment that the boy looks like he's from a whole other damn planet. He recognizes him, just a few seconds after that, as the boy who sits behind him during World History class. The boy's eyes are pleading and he opens that bright mouth up to speak and Fernando watches all of it.

"You have to come with me. Right now," Sergio implores and he gives Fernando's arm one last tug before he lets go and disappears into the party, leaving Fernando speechless and well on his way to being drunk and with the warm, foreign feeling of a hand on his skin. He follows immediately, bypassing girls in Santa hats and strung Christmas lights and god knows what else because he's following a head of long, dark hair and a broad set of shoulders. The boy comes to a sudden stop and Fernando nearly runs right into him. Sergio turns and their eyes lock and they both, very simply, smile.

"You're Sergio, right? From history? You came to school the first day with that long braid hanging down your back from under your hair. It had a blue bead and a black bead," Fernando rambles as he leans back against the nearby wall, smiling at Sergio and very pleased indeed with his own memory. Sergio grins at him and it's such a bright, true thing that Fernando feels almost blinded. His own smile gets lost on his face and he's suddenly aware of himself again and he hates it.

"Very good. And you're Fernando. You just moved here and you spend your lunches in the library reading in the classics section and you walk home from school and won't let anyone give you a ride home and you're ace at football but you never joined the team and you listen to everything from Tchaikovsky to Mississippi John Hurt to Pig Destroyer to Britney Spears and you never stare at Stacey Bryant's tits no matter how low-cut her shirt is."

Fernando just stares at him, his mouth open in dumb surprise and Sergio's eyes seem to be sparkling (but it's probably just the Christmas lights. And the Everclear. Probably.) and he suddenly feels closer and Fernando feels warmer. A lot warmer.

"How..."

"You're really smart, Fernando. And I'm... I try. I don't know. But... I've always been afraid of talking to you. Pepe keeps telling me that you're just normal and you don't try to speak to him in Russian or Mandarin or anything, so I figured I'd give it a shot." Sergio looks so shy in this moment, so sweetly and charmingly shy that Fernando feels bad. He reaches up to touch Sergio's arm but misses entirely and ends up holding onto Sergio's hip. He doesn't take it back.

"Please don't be afraid to talk to me. Please. Because I'm too awkward and... lame to talk to anyone, let alone you, so if you don't talk to me first, we'll never..." Fernando pauses, realizing how redundant he's sounding. "...Talk."

"You're not lame. You're amazing. And... and so smart. And so adorable when you blush," Sergio murmurs to him, trying to keep his voice quiet so that this stays between them somehow, so that they can have a secret in the midst of a raging party. Fernando blushes as if on cue and he can feel Sergio draw in such a deep breath that he exhales slowly, the warmth of it tickling over Fernando's skin.

"I always blush," Fernando confesses, his eyes down but he's at least getting to watch Sergio's mouth. His tummy trembles when Sergio's hand comes to rest on his cheek, the burn of their skin together enough to heat the room. His heart dances against his ribcage as Sergio's thumb learns his face, learns his warmth and his softness and his freckles. Their eyes meet and Fernando feels like he's sinking into the wall. "Why did you want me to come over here?"

Sergio's smile feels like a whisper and he tips those dark eyes up, silently asking Fernando to do the same. He does, and even his neck flushes when he sees the mistletoe hanging above their heads.

"So I could have an excuse to kiss you." He traces Fernando's mouth, drawing more color to it and begging it to soften for him.

"You don't need an excuse." Fernando's eyes slip closed and he tips his head slightly so that their mouths can catch perfectly, just right, the first time.


End file.
